People v. Trever P. (In re Trever P.)

*488 Trever P., 12 years old at the time of the offenses, was found by the juvenile court to have committed acts of sexual molestation against his four-year-old cousin while babysitting him one day. The court committed Trever to the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ).

In this appeal, Trever argues that the primary evidence against him-an audio recording, surreptitiously made by the victim's mother, of the conversation Trever and the victim had during the offenses-was inadmissible. He says Penal Code section 632, 1 a part of the Invasion of Privacy Act, barred admission of the recording. We agree with the trial court's conclusion that the evidence was admissible under an exception in section 633.5. The exception allows *873 admission of a surreptitious recording if one party consents to being recorded for the purpose of obtaining evidence of certain specified crimes. The victim's mother reasonably suspected such a crime when she arranged to make the recording. She was not a party to the conversation, but, *489 as we will explain, section 633.5 is properly construed as allowing a parent to consent on behalf of a child under circumstances like these. In so holding, we adopt…